In this series we’ll take a fresh look at resources and how they are used. We’ll go beyond natural resources like air and water to look at how efficiency in raw materials can boost the bottom line and help the environment. We’ll also examine the circular economy and design for reuse — with an eye toward honoring those resources we do have.

While changes at home can’t solve the many environmental crises we face today, they can sure help. Through this series, we’ll explore how initiatives like curbside compost pick-up, rebates on compost bins, and efficient appliances can help families reduce their impact without breaking the bank.

Despite decades -- centuries even -- of global efforts, slavery can still be found not just on the high seas, but around the world and throughout various supply chains. Through this series on forced labor, sponsored by C&A Foundation, we’ll explore many different types of bonded and forced labor and highlight industries where this practice is alive and well today.

In this series we examine how companies should respond to national controversy like police violence and the BLM movement to best support employees and how can companies work to improve equality by increasing diversity in their ranks directly.

Compost is often considered a panacea for the United States’ tremendous food waste problem. Indeed, composting is a much better option than putting spoiled food in a garbage can destined for a landfill.

Compared to the pollution from the millions of tons of toxic waste and garbage generated each year, that from prescription drugs is small potatoes. The FDA requires drug companies that plan on making more than 40 tons of a drug to file a separate environmental impact statement; in 2008, only 20 did so out of a pool of 10,000.

But the relatively small amounts of pharmaceuticals in the waste stream belie their extreme toxicity.

“These are very small volumes of chemicals we’re talking about, but they’re specifically designed to have activity on humans and so could have an effect on other vertebrates,” said Sonia Shah, a journalist who wrote a recent article on the subject for Yale 360. “Unlike pesticides which are designed to have a very limited effect, pharmaceuticals are designed to be as potent as possible.”

The problem of Rx pollution caught Shah’s attention because of the plight of the Gyps vulture in India. Between 2000 and 2007, the population of the birds plummeted; a study of the problem found the vultures had severe reactions to diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory fed to cattle to make them more productive. The birds were eating the dead cattle, accumulating diclofenac in their bodies, and then dropping dead.

And yet because the chemicals involved are so complex, their effect on the biosphere can be unpredictable. For instance, diclofenac can be fed to chickens with no noticeable side effects.

Another problem with pharmaceuticals is that, according to experts Shah consulted, only about half of drugs are actually metabolized by the body. The rest we excrete into the waste stream with their chemical make-up unchanged, with the same net effect as if we were throwing it away unused.

A powerful financial incentive

Drug companies survive on their patents. They spend hundreds of millions to develop drugs, with the knowledge that most of them will never make it to market — but those that do will be a cash cow for the length of the patent, which is 20 years from the date of invention.

The European Environment Agency in January floated a proposal (PDF) to extend the patents of drugs that are safe, effective and environmentally friendly, so-called “green” pharmaceuticals. The idea is only in the early stages, but it could prove a powerful incentive to companies to create drugs that are biodegradable or otherwise harmless, Shah reports.

An equally powerful motivator may be consumers. “I think in the end it’s going to come down to consumers opting for drugs that aren’t as long lasting and biodegrade quickly,” Shah said, which could require trade-offs, like medicines that must be taken more often, and kept in non-translucent bottles or stored in the refrigerator.

BC (Ben) Upham is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. He has written for the New York Times, and was a writer and editor for News Communications, Inc., a local paper consortium serving Manhattan. When he's not blogging on green issues -- and especially renewable energy -- he's hiking in the Angeles Mountains or hanging out at El Matador.